The Designer of Rihanna's Pum Pum Socks Talks True Jamaican Style

On the subject of Pum Pum Socks, the coquettish line of frilly and splashy Jamaican- and Harajuku-inspired socks devised by Jamaican-British stylist Savannah Baker and her partner, Gemma Shane, and favored by Rihanna, there’s no need to beat around the proverbial, ahem, bush. The term “pum pum,” in Jamaican patois, cheekily refers to a woman’s “lady parts” and is used liberally in the bombastic lyrics of dancehall’s biggest male artists. But Baker and Shane decided to reclaim the epithet for their line, which launched just last fall, to celebrate the style of dancehall queens who far too often get dismissed.

Though she originally designed the statement socks just for herself and her friends in late 2009, Baker then began incorporating the kitschy footwear into the shoots she styled with such celebrity clients as Rita Ora and Lana Del Rey. As Baker recently explained, dialing in from a Kingston-based fashion shoot, it felt instinctive to imbue her Jamaican culture into her projects. “With my styling, I’ve injected a bit of my culture wherever it feels natural,” said Baker, who happens to be the daughter of Jon Baker, the region’s top hotel impresario. “So if it’s a net top with something really high fashion, like from Vivienne Westwood’s archive, in your head it doesn’t feel like it should make sense, but then on the person, it kind of all mixes into one.” However, it wasn’t until she reconnected with Shane, a childhood friend, on one of these shoots in 2013 that Pum Pum Socks the brand officially came to be.

Shane joined Baker as her business partner and the duo launched their first collection of polychromatic sock styles last fall to appeal to the varying tastes of the “pum pum gyal.” “Each one [of the styles] in our first collection was to fit a different girl. We had the pink frilly ones, called ‘Candy Ragga,’ for the young, modern, kitsch girl, and then we have the black and navy style, which could be more for the working girl who’s a bit more chic and doesn’t want to be too over the top,” Baker said. “But with pum pum gyals, you can be completely anyone. You don’t have to be a model, you just have your own personal style and attitude.”

With such a mantra, the stylist turned designer shies away from giving absolute advice on how to wear the infectious statement footwear, but she does suggest one play with contrasts. “If you wear [the socks] with a heel, then it dresses it down. If you wear it with a trainer, it dresses it up. It’s again those contrasts. Even with a pump it adds that detail!” It’s that same brazen approach to fashion that Baker sees in her beloved dancehall queens, like Patra, Queen Carlene, and Spice. From the red hair and the booty braids to the big nails, “it’s quite outrageous!” she said. “You don’t care about what people think!”

So what’s up next for a statement socks brand that is built on defiance, attitude, and spontaneity? Statement jewelry, as in Pum Pum Rocks. Baker recently began working with an elusive but talented Rasta jeweler—“You would never know about him! He has no phone,” she said. She travels into the forest to conduct business with him, and the ornate accessories they have been creating are attracting attention from retailers.

Perhaps we’ll soon see them shining around the neck of Rihanna, the Bajan fashion bad gyal who recently wore a pair of the red, green, and yellow socks to her assistant’s 4/20-themed wedding. Said Baker: “Rihanna is the ultimate pum pum gyal!”